North American Scholar

BABBITT, Frank Cole

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  • Date of Birth (YYYY-MM-DD): 1867-06-04
  • Born City: Bridgewater
  • Born State/Country: CT
  • Parents: Isaac, a carpenter & builder, & Sarah Cole B.
  • Date of Death (YYYY-MM-DD): 1935-09-21
  • Death City: Hartford
  • Death State/Country: CT
  • Married: Ethel Hall, 28 June 1900.
  • Education:

    A.B. Harvard, 1890; A.M., 1892; Ph.D., 1895; L.H.D. Trinity College, 1927.
  • Professional Experience:

    Tchr. grade schools (Warren, CT), 1885-7; instr. Miss C.L. Rideout's School (Boston), 1890-5; fell. ASCSA, 1895-6; instr. Gk. Harvard, 1896-8; instr. Gk. Trinity Coll., 1898-9; Hobart prof. Gk. lang. & lit., 1899-1935; sec. fac, 1908-31; pres. CANE, 1920-1; pres. APA, 1926-7; vis. prof. ASCSA, 1931-2.
  • Dissertation:

    "De Euripidis Antiopa" (Harvard, 1895).
  • Publications:

    A Grammar of Attic and Ionic Greek (New York, 1902); "A Comprehensive View of Homeric Criticism (Cauer's Grund-fragen der Homerkritik)," C7 8 (1912-3) 203-15; "Homerica," C7 10 (1914-5) 378-9; Plutarch's Moralia (trans.), vols. 1-5, LCL (London & New York, 1927-36).
  • Notes:

    Frank Cole Babbitt discovered the ruins of the ancient theater at Corinth and translated Plutarch's Moralia for the Loeb Series. He devoted more than half his life to Trinity College in his home state. While at the American School with T. W. Heermance, later director of the ASCSA, H. F. de Coue, who was later shot during a political disturbance in Cyrene, J. C. Hoppin, the authority on Greek vases, and the Cornell archaeologist E. P. Andrews, Babbitt discovered the theater, the first of the important finds on that site. His report is at AM 2d ser. 1 (1897) 481-94.His greatest contribution was his unfinished translation of the Moralia, at which he worked feverishly until shortly before his death. It is remarkable that he was able to complete five volumes in the five years that he worked on the project.He played high-level tennis until late in his life, always giving a match to the college's best players, and took up squash at the age of 60. He was a devoted apiarist who kept six hives in his Hartford home and several more at his country home in Petersham, MA. At the time of his death he was the senior member of the Trinity faculty.
  • Sources:

    AJA 39 (1935) 593; C/ 31 (1935-6) 205; WhAm 1:40.
  • Author: Ward W. Briggs, Jr.